White Bear: Technical Notes

The pictures in White Bear are not the result of one-cut photography; they are formed by many high resolution photos digitally stitched together. For example, Hagenbeck Zoo (Hamburg), Deutschland was made with 24 photographs, illustrated below:

The final result is the picture below:

Due to the conditions of the sites (often shot through glass; some of them in low light) and the fact that the animals are moving quite fast, it is not possible to use large format film to achieve adequate visual quality.

For Hagenbeck Zoo (Hamburg), Deutschland, the key moving objects include two bears, the zoo keeper/ walrus action, the Hamburg Airways plane, and the girl on rock, as shown below:

These instances have to happen within a time window of 0.5-1 minutes, or the lighting condition will change and make the render problematic. It is crucial towait for the perfect moment to arrive; each site usually takes at least six hours (or days) execute, excluding post production.

The still images are designed for the walls, and the size should be sufficient to fill the audiences' vision, hence creating the visual experience of visiting the site. The quality of the images can be viewed online via Gigapan. The above picture from Hamburg rendered 300 megapixels, sufficient for its purpose.